"I don't think it's too violent for everybody," Bacon told Vulture. "Here's the thing: I've done a lot of different kinds of movies, played a lot of different kinds of parts. I was in the very first Friday the 13th. I've been in silly movies and romantic movies and historic movies.

"My focus is to play the part with as much honesty and integrity as I can and to explore what I want to explore as an actor."

However, Bacon - who plays FBI agent Ryan Hardy - admitted that he had been drawn to the series by its "high stakes" premise.

"I started to realise that the shows that I was watching - Breaking Bad, Homeland, The Killing, Game of Thrones - they're all really life-and-death situations, so I knew that was something I'd want."

The Following - which also stars James Purefoy and Natalie Zea - debuts on Sky Atlantic in the UK on Tuesday, January 22 at 10pm. The series premieres a day earlier on Fox in the US.